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The Advisor’s Corner – Am I an At-Risk Leader?

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At-risk leaderQuestion:

Is there a way to tell if I’m an ‘at-risk’ leader?

StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)

Sure. You can ask yourself the questions below to get a good start and then you can and should regularly ask for direct or anonymous constructive feedback from your direct reports, peers, leader and others. You attitudes and behaviors are the biggest differentiators for leadership success. The four well researched core emotional intelligence metrics of: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management are directly correlated with successful or failing leadership.

Here are some key attitudes and behaviors to pay attention to because just being proficient in your technical area of expertise ignores the fact that a leader’s success is highly dependent on others’ contributions.

Ask yourself, do I…?

Read/understand emotions and recognize the impact of them on self and others. By developing an accurate view of, and aptly managing, one’s own emotional responses to situations, the rest of you skills and talents are magnified and leveraged. You regularly seek feedback and acknowledge when your impact and intent are out of synch. ?

Know your strengths and limitations. The best leaders understand they can never know and do everything… and don’t pretend to. Instead, they recognize what they are good at and leverage those skills. You surround themselves with people who are smarter and more experienced in areas where you have gaps, and you listen to them.

Know and have a good sense of your own self-worth and capability. There is a big divide between confidence and arrogance. Confidence comes from a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness. Arrogance comes from fear in many cases, and a sense of entitlement in others. You are confident based on an objective, not assumed point of view.

Think and act with optimism – see the ‘upside.’ There are two kinds of world view attitudes people project in the world—those who think and act through the lens of abundance, and those who think and act through a lens of scarcity. You go for solutions, new ideas, and silver linings, even in the worst of times. You may change course, but you never give up. You thoughtfully navigate your staffers to a better place – often to places they didn’t know or believe possible.

See and seize opportunities for contributing to the greater good. Despite conventional thinking, great leaders have low ego needs precisely because of their solid confidence and self-worth. You don’t waste time and energy shining up your image. Your integrity is without question. You are willing to partner with others and you listen with an objective and compassionate for the greater good of the organization.

Or Do I…?

Discount others’ emotions and perspective. Failing leaders don’t pick up on other people’s signals. Or, if they do, they don’t care, demonstrating a fundamental lack of empathy and social awareness. You cannot be a good leader without empathy, period.

Miss key organizational clues, norms, decision networks and politics. ?These ‘leaders’ have very little emotional intelligence in terms of self-awareness and organizational awareness. You are missing clues, haven’t developed a wide network, and operate more like individual contributor than a leader.

Blame others for outcomes. Failing leaders don’t ask; they tell. You need to make someone wrong to be right. The difference between accountability and blame is the way the issue or problem is approached. You go for blame not solution.

Avoid dealing with and resolving conflicts. ?Failing leaders avoid dealing with conflicts and don’t provide constructive feedback to others. They duck key relationship issues. You often think, “If I ignore it, it will go away.”

Isolate myself and/or my team from others in the organization. You think you and/or your immediate team are better/smarter/righter than everyone else. These leaders are happiest in their ‘silo,’ rarely sharing resources or knowledge. You believe no one understands you or your work.

About the Author

Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].

A Shift in Leadership Can Make a Multi-Million Dollar Impact

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You would think that an Ivy League institution like Cornell University would be a model of the best practices of leadership throughout its organization since Cornell and most universities believe they are growing the next generation of leaders for our country and our world. Well… not necessarily and not always. While Cornell executive leadership can be exemplary, there were and still are times when units within this very large institution needed significant improvement. I was asked to lead a cultural turnaround in a large section of Cornell’s non-academic infrastructure. Over time, this intervention prevented lawsuits and arbitrations, increased customer satisfaction, increased revenues, reduced expenses, personnel problems, worker’s compensation claims, and turnover.

We chose to change our culture from a “top-down, my way or the highway” model to a values-based collaborative one. In any organization, what is rewarded and measured is what you will get. With a giant leap of faith, we invested in our leaders. We required every person who had supervisory responsibilities to attend a nine-day intensive training spread over three-four months.

Our leaders completed the program knowing, not guessing, what was expected of them, as leaders of their teams and as models for our entire organization. The experiential, highly interactive course included intensive exploration and training in 4 core Masteries: Personal Mastery, Interpersonal Mastery, Team Mastery and Culture and Systems Mastery.

They learned a great deal about their impact as a leader on everyone around them, a humbling experience for most. They learned and practiced how to communicate effectively and resolve conflicts, build teams to succeed, lead meetings that didn’t waste time, lead change that would stick, walk the talk with our organizational values, and finally how to engage and manage our talent. They also learned how they would be held accountable to our high standard of leadership behaviors. We began to measure performance for both business and behavioral results. That got everyone’s attention!

After three years of running our program, we had more than 200 leaders on board. We then required our entire staff to attend a week-long intensive program. This involved several more years and another 1,800 people, 60% of whom were union employees. We remained steadfastly committed to having all our staff from custodians, plumbers, and bus drivers to engineers, architects, and finance directors, trained in the culture we wanted to create and the culture we expected each of our people to honor.

Prior to the leadership intervention, our campus customers said we took too long and were too expensive. We also received powerful feedback that customers did not like working with us because of leader and staff attitudes. This of course directly correlated to our proposal win-rate of only about 40% of the bids in our facilities related departments. In reality, we were not any more expensive than others. Our real problem was we were not holding our leaders and staff accountable. High quality service was not a value before we started. We were a mediocre, at best, institutional operation with a sense of entitlement.

The results of our extensive experiment were nothing short of remarkable— and we found that positive, impactful leadership leads to great bottom line results. We managed university budget cuts with grace; we had far less turn over than the university as a whole and even lower than national averages for the same job categories.

Soon after the program was implemented, our internal customers started to notice. Our productivity grew each year and our facility bids were winning over 70% of the time. Because we were awarded more contracts and generated more revenue, we had a positive impact on the university and on our city. It is no accident that millions of dollars were saved because of one and only one intervention—teaching our leaders how to lead their people well in a solid values-based culture. More than 50% of our custodians had perfect attendance and we celebrated them. We received more applications than anywhere else on campus and became the ‘division of choice,’ where people wanted to work.

All of these stunning results were a direct result of the heightened quality of leadership throughout our entire organization. Our colleagues and customers could count on our people to do a great job, as promised, when promised, and with a good attitude—plain and simple.

During this time and over the next ten years, we experienced only two arbitrations, both of which we won. No lawsuits were filed against us by employees and we had very few Step 3 grievances from our four unions. Imagine this—the unions did not complain or file grievances even when their members were, like the leaders, required to receive an anonymous 360o feedback report on their impact in the workplace and required to attend training.

I co-conducted a professional peer review of a nearly identical campus on the west coast (size, structure, unions, facilities, budget, number of staff). They had no leadership or staff training in place, were not focused on customer service or accountability, and spent millions of dollars every year on arbitrations and employee law suits, most of which they lost. The only material differences between our campuses were geography and the quality of the leadership. Their leadership was measurably dysfunctional and ineffective; ours was functional and effective. We spent half a million dollars to train our people and restructure our reward systems over 10 years. They spent five times that on one lost lawsuit in one year.

We learned from our experience in culture change that having the ability to lead others to success does not happen by accident; it takes solid values, a long-term and deep commitment, alignment, accountability, and great leadership.

About the Author

Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

Leadership actions that are not an option for leaders.

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“Where’s the action? Where’s the game?” is a line in the song “Oldest Established” from the immortal Broadway show (and my personal favorite) Guys and Dolls.

For the uninformed, the show is about a craps game and a leader named Nathan Detroit. The movie version stars Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando and won all kinds of awards.

The plot is about gambling, winning, attracting, and making it happen no matter what. It’s just a great show and movie with great music and a happy ending.

The theme is one of looking to the leader to make things happen. And it’s the same in your business – just without the craps game and the songs. BUT not without gambling. All business is a gamble and all businesses look to their leaders to ‘make it happen.’

Here are the actions I have observed about leadership that are mandatory for leadership success. They’re internal actions that build trust, earn respect, and create a team of inspired people – inspired to be productive and do their best…

  • Great leaders are value providers, not order givers. At the TOP of every employee’s list of job wants (besides more money) is to be appreciated and valued. When appreciation for a job well done is conveyed, positive environment thrives.
  • Great leaders tell the truth. Truth creates trust and confidence and a reliance on the consistency of message. All other leadership characteristics and outcomes fade if there is a lack of truth. (Same in life.)
  • Great leaders are in control and earn respect. Quick to decide and not afraid to make or admit mistakes, great leaders are respected because they take action and respected because they are vulnerable.
  • Great leaders focus on OUTCOME to ensure completed tasks. Don’t focus on task or project completion. Rather, think what will happen AFTER the project is completed. Outcome, not task. Outcome, not results.
  • Great leaders are responsible by example and expect the same from their people. Everyone ‘looks’ to and at leaders. Watches their every move. If the leader is slack, lacks work ethic, or is slow to decide, they have given tacit permission to their team to be and do the same. The best leaders are first in, last out, and work their ass off in the middle.
  • Great leaders value and display tolerance and temperance. First in themselves – then from others. I’m not a fan of leaders who rant. Lots of successful ones do rant, but there are rules to follow if you’re one of them.
    RULE 1 – Praise in public.
    RULE 2 – Reprimand in private.
    RULE 2.5 – Record yourself doing both praise and reprimand. See how you sound to others by listening to yourself. You may not like it.
  • Great leaders are excellent communicators that are listened to intently, and are clearly understood. The one characteristic that gets more productivity and generates more achievement and positive outcome is clear communication. Leaders have a responsibility and a challenge to be excellent at it.
  • Great leaders train WITH their people, continuously. If training is to have a lasting value, it must have leadership support AND participation. Leaders must train to be better leaders. Start by rating yourself 1-10 on the qualities I have listed here. Anything less that a 7 (out of 10) requires immediate attention.
  • Great leaders are wide open to new ideas and innovation. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is a recipe for failure. Leaders are readers, constantly searching for new ways to be better.
  • Great leaders are tech-savvy. Leaders need to be tweeters, and need to lead the way by communicating value and ideas through social media. A leader’s example can create an avalanche of great service, goodwill, loyal customers, increased sales, and better reputation – or not.
  • Great leaders concentrate on and think BEST. It always takes extra effort to be or strive to be ‘best,’ that’s why so many people fail. Failure occurs when people (leaders or not) fail to do their best and be their best – daily.
  • Great leaders remain committed. The best leaders never waver. They’re loyal, steadfast examples of what and who others aspire to be and be like. They’re not just mission driven; they’re also ‘personal mission’ driven. They are respected and followed because of their commitment.
  • Great leaders encourage. They build pride with a ‘you can do it’ philosophy and communication style. They encourage their people to succeed, and do so with a helpful, positive attitude. A coach and a teacher, not a manager or a boss. Big difference, both in results and morale.

Did I just define your leader? Did I just define how you are inspired to be and do your best every day? I hope so, but I doubt it.

The challenge for you, whether you’re a leader or a team member, is to study these qualities, and talk about them openly. One of the tragedies of leadership is that the (overrated) 360-degree feedback process, usually only goes 180 degrees.

Great leaders don’t just lead by example – they set the standard. What kind of standard are you setting?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

What you listen to can determine your mood and your fate.

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Everyone has their own time machine.
The only question is: how are you using it?

The time machine I’m referring to is music. The music you grew up with and the music you listen to every day. I refer to it as the ‘music transportation department’ because the right song can transport you back to an exact place and time in an instant – and create a great feeling.

Hopefully a positive place.
Hopefully a peaceful place.
Hopefully an inspirational place.
And surprisingly a sales place.

In 1983, I went to an ‘oldies’ concert in Philadelphia. A bunch of doo-wop groups reassembled to sing 25-year-old songs. The music I grew up with. The opening group was The Dubs who started the show singing “Could This Be Magic.” Please watch it here:

As I listened and sang along, I started to cry. It was the beginning of my true understanding of music. I’ve been a devout listener of doo-wop since 1955 and considered myself somewhat of an expert. But the memories it brought back were amazing. Overwhelming.

The Dubs provided my first recognized musical time machine, and I have been in the time machine warp ever since.

Fast forward to 2008. I started my subscription to a club here in Charlotte, North Carolina, called Music with Friends. They put on four concerts a year in a small venue (750 people) with great acoustics (actually an old converted church). I’ve got perfect seats (although there is not a bad seat in the house). And every event is TOTAL time machine music. Gladys Knight, Tony Bennett, Smokey Robinson, Hall & Oats, and Diana Ross to name a few.

Yes, I go to large arena music time machine events too. Carole King, Springsteen, and the incomparable Leonard Cohen.

And as a true music lover, I also see who and what is new. Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Rhianna.

There’s magic in live music.

IMPORTANT MUSIC LESSON: Repetition is the mother of mastery. If you hear a song once, and you like it, you tap your foot to the music. After you hear that song five times, you can sing along. After you hear that song ten times, you can sing it on your own.

And if you hear that same song 20 years later, it instantly transports you back to the exact time and place you first heard it.

If I play the right song for you, I can take you back to your first date, first kiss, summer romance, travel, school, riding in a car, first wedding dance, even your first divorce.

In the late ’60s, one of the singer-songwriters I listened to most was Leonard Cohen. Compelling, clear, haunting music. In 1993, I was finishing the writing and editing of my Sales Bible in Hilton Head. Along with my editor, Rod Smith, and my cat Lito, I (we) listened to Leonard Cohen every day as the book was completed. Twenty years later I had a chance to see him live in Las Vegas. Sitting in the second row, the floodgates of memories and life opened. An amazing performance.

Last month we (my partner Jessica and I) flew to New Orleans to watch Leonard Cohen for the second time in two years. I could sing every song. It wasn’t just a concert. It was an emotional remembrance. The ’60s, The Sales Bible, the first concert, and this one. Very emotional. Very inspirational. Very impactful. Very life enhancing.

What’s your music?
What were you dancing to?
What are you dancing to?
What’s making your memories?
What’s keeping your memories alive?
What makes you cry with joy?
What makes you sing along (even if you can’t sing)?
What makes you stop and contemplate life?

SALES MUSIC: Music can also affect and impact your sales. Upbeat music makes the brain think and act upbeat. I prefer to call it ‘sales music’ because it gets you in a positive mood and can provide that extra passionate push.

Don’t you wish your prospect was thinking, “Bob is going to be here soon, I better play some rock music so I’m in a great mood when he arrives.” IDEA: Why not send a few songs to your prospect and ask him or her to listen to them just prior to your arrival. Okay, that probably won’t happen, but you get the idea.

MUSIC ACTION PLAN:
1. Document your music memory makers and get that music onto your music player or phone.
2. Identify the music that makes you wanna dance and puts you in a great mood. Download it all and put it in a separate ‘sales music’ file on your iPod.
2.5 Listen with the intent to be in a great frame of mind. A sales frame of mind.

I don’t know about you, but sales has always been music to my ears.

TELL ME: Got a favorite tune to set your sales mind on fire? Post it on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/jeffreygitomer.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

People don’t know what they have. It’s better than money.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Count your blessings.” I wonder how you interpret that. I wonder how you count them. I wonder how you take advantage of them. My biggest wonder is how grateful are you for your blessings.

HERE’S AN IDEA: Re-look at your blessings from a different perspective. Are they blessings or are they assets? Are they blessings or are they attributes? Are they blessings or are they gifts that you can share with others?

GOOD NEWS: There are no right answers to those questions.
BETTER NEWS: You have to determine the answers for yourself.
BEST NEWS: Once you determine what those blessings, or assets, or attributes, or gifts are you can begin to build them, add to them, enjoythem, and turn them into a happier, better you.

HERE’S HOW TO DO IT: Sit down at your laptop and write your eulogy. Write down what you would want your children or your significant other to say about your life. How you lived it, how you achieved in it, and what your best qualities were. What kind of a person were you? What kind of a father or mother were you? What kind of a son or daughter were you? What kind of a friend were you?

Those are the questions that will reveal all of the assets, all of the attributes, and all of the gifts that you have.

In my opinion, the one blessing or attribute that will define you better than any of the others is what you gave. I don’t mean how much money you gave away. Rather, I mean what you gave of yourself. Did you volunteer? Did you participate in a charity? Did you help your kids with their homework? Did you help an elderly person across the street? Were you a giver or a taker?

Giving defines your person.

Me? I give smiles. And I give them on purpose, every day.

I have a daily goal. Make ten people smile every day. That may not sound like much, but it’s amazing what happens when you can make someone you hardly know smile at you based on your interaction with them. It means that you have been kind, or humorous, or thought provoking, or just a good guy or gal. Sometime it involves a bigger tip than you might normally give. Sometimes it’s just a matter of holding a door. Whatever it is, when you make someone smile it changes their whole physiology. They walk away feeling better than they did because they encountered you.

My daily goal also includes one other element: performing a random act of kindness.

Random acts of kindness are easily defined as proactive politeness, proactive helping, or proactive giving. No one asked for anything. You just decided to get up and do it.

I wonder if you ever think about random acts of kindness. I wonder if you regularly perform random acts of kindness. I wonder if you understand who feels best after the random act of kindness is been performed.

If you perform them like I do, then you know who feels best. You do.

Oh, the recipient feels great because you helped them or honored them. But you feel greater. Random acts of kindness have a double win. And the feeling lasts a long time.

I challenge you to make ten people smile and perform one random act of kindness a day. I challenge you to do it for the right reasons: for yourself.

When you make people smile, you smile. The power of that transfers immediately to all your other thoughts and you become happier. In fact, you look for ways to make other people smile because of the feeling that gives you.

And that’s a self-imposed blessing you can take to the grave.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].